Portraiture photo studio equipment
Although natural light conditions can be very nice for a portrait photo session, typically you do not have the time to wait until the light is perfect. Therefore most portrait photo sessions are done in a studio environment. An additional advantage is that one can control all aspects individually and set the light in a way, which would suit the desired outcome perfectly well.
Most professional photographers use flash lights for this, because flash lights are very high in brightness and by this outplay all ambient light influence. My Shanghai studio is equipped with very typical portraiture equipment. As main light, I am using a flash light with a 50cm beauty dish. This gives a very pleasing result and can enhance the natural beauty of a face. To balance the light and make it more soft, I am using a second flash for the so called fill light. I have different sizes of soft boxes for this purpose, which are used according to the situation.
By balancing main and fill light in the right way, the depth of the shadows in the face can be adjusted. Any result between either a very flat or avery dramatic expression can be achieved. To put a glance on the hair, another so called hair light flash with a narrow tube light former is used. This flash can also be used to put an accent to the back ground, if desired.
For the back ground I use two more flasch lights, which I have equipped with strip light formers, due to the size of my studio. They will be used to have a natural white back ground, in case needed. With a white and a black exchangable back ground cloth and the described flash light sets, white, gray and black back grounds are possible. For me, putting the highest focus on the face itself, these back grounds are all I need. I do not want to distract the viewers attention from the face, by using any structured or colored back grounds in my studio.